Ashley Hunter
ECB Publishing, Inc.
For over 60 years, the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch has served to improve the lives of at-risk children in the state of Florida. Launched by a group of Florida sheriffs in 1957, the ranch, located in Live Oak, Fla., was created to serve as a residential care facility for troubled boys who came from difficult homes and backgrounds. This service to Florida’s youth was created with the vision of helping develop youths into upstanding citizens, despite troubled backgrounds and personal histories. Now, the youth ranches have expanded to six facilities around the state and are credited with helping more than 152,000 children and families in Florida.
The Live Oak facility, which currently has the capacity to house 82 boys and girls between the ages of 3-20, allows youths to attend an on-campus school or local public school. The ranch also facilitates sports for co-ed youths and families, such as swimming, baseball, volleyball and canoeing as well as arts and crafts and a work program.
All the good that the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches do, however, depends significantly on donors who financially support the mission that the ranch so considerably values. In addition to community sponsors, donated items and the purchase of specialty youth-ranch license plates in Florida, the youth ranch is supported through payroll deductions that are opted into by federal, state or sheriff’s office employees.
These employees contact their human resource department and specially request that a portion of their payroll be dedicated and sent as a donation to the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch fund. According to the youth ranch’s Vice President of Donor and Legislative Affairs Maria Knapp, the payroll deduction program was launched 14 years ago in 2007. And for the last 14 years, only one sheriff’s office has claimed the recognition of having the highest number of employee participation in the program – the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. In July, that participation was recognized at the 2021 Florida Sheriff’s Association Summer Conference.
For the last 14 years, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office hasn’t just had the highest percentage of employees participating in the payroll deduction program but has topped the charts at 100 percent employee involvement. “Jefferson County has always won the category of highest percentage of staff participating. That would be 14 years of being number one,” writes Knapp. “It takes the support of the human resources and finance staff along with all the members who sign up. It is really an awesome achievement!”
The JCSO’s involvement in the program began at the start of the program’s launch and was supported by the program’s “vocal champion” and Jefferson’s former sheriff, David Hobbs.
“There are three individuals who are the foundation behind our agency winning this award every year since 2007,” explains Jefferson County Sheriff Mac McNeill. “ Sheriff David Hobbs, who was a vocal champion and dedicated supporter for the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches, and Jean Willis, who dutifully explained the importance of the ranches and what they accomplish to every new employee we hired, including myself when I first arrived in 2017. Armed with this knowledge, it’s my honor to continue supporting the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranches.” Since the retirement of Jean Willis, the new HR Director, Susan Edwards is just as dedicated and diligent about spreading the world of these important ranches as crucial resources for the youth of Florida.
Sheriff McNeill adds that the JCSO has supported the ranch since Sheriffs James Scott and Ken Fortune, and as of February 2021, he personally serves on the Board of Directors for the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch.
In addition to thanking his employees for their participation in the cause of supporting the Florida Sheriffs Youth Ranch, Sheriff McNeill urges citizens to take the time and research the mission of the ranches themselves as well as to consider ways that they, as members of the community, can also support the worthwhile organization.
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